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My favourite relative was 95 when she died. She was a bad tempered battleaxe, during WWII she made tanks and lost an eye from a welding accident. She was a hard women but a faithful one. During her final week on earth, she was bedridden and did not speak or eat or do anything except repeatedly make the sign of the cross, slowly and reverently over her body. Her final battle, glory to God!
Ah, yes, all things are Serbian. 😄 Just like St. Nicholas of Zhicha (Velimirović), every Saint was Serbian, even Bulgarian and Greek Saints, they were really Serbian too! 😉
"We are called to witness Christ, but that does not mean that our faith has to be in your face" Great advice for the Orthodox *online* and offline. Great advice for all Christians really, but extremely good advice for us Orthodox.
If I had a dollar for every time I've triggered a wave of people making the sign of the cross in church, when I was just adjusting my eyeglasses, I could sponsor infinite more videos.
I have to do the sign of the cross with my left hand because it's the only one I have. I have had a few tell me not to because you can only use a right hand. They recieve a prompt eyeroll from me. Once I asked a woman if she would be my permanant caregiver and follow me around to bless me with the cross at my need since she forbade me to do so, and she quickly, stuttered walked backwards and got a fear stricken look on her face. Ahhhhh.... good times. If you're ever persecuted for being handicapped, offer your persecuter a job taking care of you. They will quickly vanish into thin air.
Chronic migraine here - exacerbated dramatically by incense (among other things). I have been known to intimate to critics of my at-home church observances that I'd rather watch the livestream than throw up on the icons.... Good for you! 🙏🕯☦
I live in a rural small town in the American South. Most people in my area don't know the Orthodox Church exists and all they know about Catholics is that their preacher told them Catholics are evil. When my family and I make the sign of the cross in public, we will often receive some very dirty looks. I actually love this. It feels to me like a signpost that I am on the right track. These looks are especially bad when praying before a meal with beer in front of me. Lol
Granny is my favorite character in this lore... she reminder me of some of the babushkas you see in Greek small community churches. When I was in Greece there were almost only grannies in the church. When they found out I wanted to convert they became so happy and I was on great terms with them the whole vacation. Can't wait to see them again
I want to thank you for your videos. I'm a Southern Baptist but the Lord has been guiding me me to the deeper truth found in Orthodoxy. I went to my first Divine Liturgy this past Sunday and it was amazing. Hopefully this time next year I'll be an Orthodox Christian.
Jesus Christ is God incarnate who came to earth to be born and live a perfect life, a sinless life. (He is one person of the Trinity, consisting of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; one God in three persons not three Gods.) Jesus then gave Himself up to be crucified and died to pay for the sins of the whole world. My sin, your sin, the sins of everybody. 3 days later He was resurrected. He now offers salvation to all who will turn from their sin and trust Him to save them from eternity in hell. He paid our debts because we couldn't, but we have to trust Him to do it. I cannot add anything to what He has done (not even baptism). I cannot do enough good to take even a year off of my death sentence in hell. The sentence is a never ending one, because I have sinned against an eternal God. But Jesus took my punishment, He saved me, and offers that same salvation to you. I am praying for you.
My two favorite cross making techniques: 1) the Greek Bouzouki player: such a rapid and small movement of the hand, making the sign three times in succession, to appear you are playing an invisible musical instrument. 2) the Russian Cosmonaut: the very methodical and extremely curvy arm motion, as if you are trying to simultaneously control your arm in zero gravity while having to navigate around your body's bulky space suit.
I’ve heard of people imprisoned making the sign in secret with their tongues in their mouth when doing so normally would cause the guards to beat them.
I remember once I was carried off by a large demon. He said the sentence of death given to all people was to come upon me. I resigned myself to the mercy of God and made the sign of the cross. You never saw anything so big run away from something so small..
Not Orthodox myself, but your vids always bless, educate, and help me appreciate my siblings in Christ---and this one especially today. Don't really know how to put it into words, but it blessed me more than usual. I learned an appreciation for the sign of the cross at my yia-yia's funeral. She was protestant, but my grandfather returned to his Greek Orthodox roots and found a community when she got dementia. A
Apparently my priest recently made the sign of the cross WITH a newly illumined baby in hand. So you could add blessing folks with babies to your list, maybe🤣
Always enjoy watching your videos, glad you managed to reference some Catholicism in your images as we also bless ourselves, albeit in the opposite direction to the E. Orthodox.
I'm a Catholic and have always made the sign of the cross left too right but I never knew about the three fingers and the two down that was never explained so Thankyou very much.
@@BibleIllustrated Bojan, I was reading genesis a few days ago and remembered chapter 18, is it a reference to the trinity? since Abraham called the three men "LORD", or are the three visitors just angels?
@@James-en1ob They are seen as a reference to the Trinity by the Church. In fact, the icon of the three angels is called 'the Old Testament Trinity' and is considered a rare canonical depiction of the Trinity Itself.
In my school one girl brought a box with prayer robes and Orthodox Icons and she placed them on a table and the girls gathered to have a prayer circle because we had a test from pshysics,and its pretty common to see people crossing entering the class when we have a test,btw im serbian
Your channel is entertaining and educating at the same time. Maybe nowadays with forklifts, Organs will be allowed back in the Church, provided their is a forklift on hand.
I think it’s in Lactantius’ “On the Manner in Which the Persecutors Died,” or maybe Eusebius’ “Life of Constantine,” but it’s mentioned that Christians in Emperor Galerius’ court crossed themselves during a pagan ritual and “ruined” it, which basically started the Great Persecution when Galerius, as the crybaby he is, whined about it to Diocletian.
Okay but what about putting your hand over your heart when you finish doing the sign of the cross? It's just a custom, but is there any opinion on it either way? When should we cross ourselves three times over and when should we just do it once? And how was Thessalonica?
1) Never heard of putting your hand over your heart in these 17 years of being a practicing Orthodox, curious to know more 2) This is something some people do but is generally done for prayers done in threes (such as the Trisagion) 3) Podcast episode on this coming soon! :-)
@@BibleIllustrated 1. Maybe I expressed it wrong, or maybe it's just a Greek thing, but at the end of the cross people seem to put a palm over their heart: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-dUXNHzjWL68.html&ab_channel=TrisagionFilms 2. And nice it looks I've been overcrossing myself, thanks for helping this fat man do less movement :D
I attended a Greek church for a while, and they always laid their hand over their heart afterwards. Edited to add; they always signed 3 times. I never once saw anyone make the sign only once during service.
I am soo glad that you treated this topic, especially for patristic refferences. But...on which works St. Basil and Blessed Theodoret mentioned those informations? Could you give the title/sermon number, or a refference towards them? I'd really love to find the prime sources.
@@BibleIllustrated too bad the Greek Orthodox in the states have Protestantized themselves and brought in the use of organs. It’s such a distraction during worship.
your priest probably doesn't have time to object (there's a line behind you, and at that moment if his wife didn't say her name he'd probably not remember it) or the inclination to stop an act of piety by people who have so few (nothing personal! ) or even see you. remember! he is holding Christ in his hands! frankly, it's a miracle of grace that we don't just burst into flame.
@@thedreadtyger In one of the orders of preparation for Communion (I'm kinda new; I think that's how to describe it!?), my favorite phrase is something like, "I, being grass, partake of fire; strange wonder, I am not consumed" ... (I'd look it up to quote it exactly, but I'm traveling, and it's 1200 miles away...!) 🥴
As far as I have researched, it was originally right to left, but then it was changed in the West for some reason. And I have also heard this from the mouth of a Catholic priest, so I will believe this theory holds water
This might be a silly question, I am planning to go to a Orthodox church soon and wanted to make sure i had this right. In all Orthodox churches is it right shoulder then left, I am going to a Serbian Orthodox Church named after a saint.
Not a silly question! Yes all eastern orthodox (greece, russia, OCA, Serbia, ukraine, antioch, jerusalem, Bulgaria, etc) Christians do right shoulder to left. You may encounter some "oriental orthodox" (coptic, armenian, ethiopian) Christians doing the opposite, but keep in mind they are not orthodox. Also, did you end up going? God bless
Hey there, when I pray, I first perform ablution and then make the sign of the Cross and pray, but I also make the sign of the Cross when I am worried or afraid. Is there any requirement to be clean (such as performing ablution, washing hands and feet) before making the sign of the cross? Thank you!
Hi bojan I have a question. I heard a little while ago that orthodox don’t believe in original sin, at least not in the way people think you do(I know y’all believe that the snake made Adam and Eve sin of course). Can you or someone explain to me this? Thanks lol sorry I’m not to familiar when it comes to orthodox and original sin
Original sin is a Western theology. It is credited to St. Augustine and expounded about in his work, "The City of God". The gist is that original sin is an inherited flaw of the flesh; because we are born flesh we are born in sin. This is why baptism is so deeply stressed about in both Roman and Protestant circles; the Methodist founder himself believed babies went to hell for want of baptism. In the East, sin is not something that is inherent but something that you do carelessly; a passion that mutates with a little self-nurturing into the crippling sins we know all to well. Since our fallen natures make sinning so easy, to an Eastern mind there was no point in forcing some logistical, materialistic reasoning for sin being an endemic thing for humanity. It is a fantastic example of Roman literalness and litigation for all things, solving a problem that did not exist. Orthodoxy does believe that the first man dies in baptism and a new creation in Christ is born out of the baptismal waters, but unlike a lot of Protestant traditions, there is no ironclad guarantee that baptism means you are saved; your salvation in the East is a daily walk, not a once-and-done affair, again rendering the entire debate about Original Sin moot. Jesus took care of all sin with his victory, so why quibble over the how or why? Let Christ carry that burden for you and let yourself worry about other things.
This may be an ad hoc explanation, but I've thought that's because Christ talks in the Last Judgment first to those who are at His right hand, and then to those who are at His left.
I'm catholic too, but I was raised by Mexican parents and grandparents. We were taught to cross our index finger and thumb to make a cross. The middle finged, ring finger and pinky stand for the trinity. After we cross ourselves we kiss the crossed fingers.
But Bojan arent we equal before the lord? Then why can't we bless others with higher ranks or elders? They should consider themselves infront of the holy lord, not before a younger person
Do the people on the hunt for Christian blood HAVE to be Islamists? -- A voice from across the ocean, amid the collapse of the U.S. into godless fascist tyranny....🙏🕯☦
True they can also be communists , atheists , pagans , even some so called "christian" "groups" (islamic and communist "incidents" are just the most violent and most recent)
